Welcome!

We are the Warmothers, the Women's Ultimate Frisbee team at Swarthmore College. Check out our website for more information on our team, players, and practice/tournament schedules. Also, check out our photo/video galleries, team store, and blog.

Are you an alum? Prospective student? Current Swattie interested in playing ultimate? Drop us a line at warmothers_captains@sccs.swarthmore.edu

Women's Ultimate at Swarthmore

What is Ultimate Frisbee?Ultimate is perhaps best defined by this quote from usaultimate.org, the national governing body of Ultimate Frisbee in the United States:

"Combining the non-stop movement and athletic endurance of soccer with the aerial passing skills of football, a game of Ultimate is played by two seven-player squads with a high-tech plastic disc on a field similar to football. The object of the game is to score by catching a pass in the opponent’s end zone. A player must stop running while in possession of the disc, but may pivot and pass to any of the other receivers on the field. Ultimate is a transition game in which players move quickly from offense to defense on turnovers that occur with a dropped pass, an interception, a pass out of bounds, or when a player is caught holding the disc for more than ten seconds. Ultimate is governed by Spirit of the Game™, a tradition of sportsmanship that places the responsibility for fair play on the players rather than referees. Ultimate is played in more than 42 countries by hundreds of thousands of men and women, girls and boys."

The Warmothers wholeheartedly believe in the value of both Spirit of the Game and intense competition; see the section entitled "Our Team" for more information about this.

How do I become a Warmother?Email the captains (see our "contact" section), come to our interest meeting in the fall, or just come to practice! If you are new to the sport, you should plan on joining at the beginning of the fall or spring semester (preferably the fall, since it is our more relaxed, learning-focused season). We don't have tryouts or make any cuts based on skill -- if you come to practice and show interest and commitment, consider yourself a member of the team!

But I'm terrible at throwing a frisbee!This is the first sentence that every prospective Ultimate player utters before they come to practice for the first time. Almost every single one of our first-year players were terrible at throwing a disc when they joined, and none of them knew how to play Ultimate (they're experts now)! Most of our players have never played Ultimate before college, and some have never played a team sport before. The only prerequisite for joining our team is a desire to learn and work hard.

When, where, and how often do we play Ultimate?We generally have 2 afternoon practices and 1 morning practice each week. We practice on Cunningham fields, which are across the street from Ben West. We also attend between three and five tournaments per semester, which are generally weekend-long commitments.

What do tournaments entail?We play all of our inter-collegiate games at tournaments, so they are very important. At a tournament, we'll play three or five games on both Saturday and Sunday. Some tournaments are close enough that we'll return to Swarthmore on Saturday night; others are farther away, in which case we stay at a hotel. So, tournaments entail: traveling off-campus with friends, playing Ultimate all day, and generally having a great time.

What is the time commitment like? Is it hard to balance Ultimate with academics? The time commitment is different in the fall and spring semesters. The fall season is more relaxed: we usually hold three practices during the week and we focus on learning basic skills and getting in shape. The spring is our more competitive season: we attend more tournaments and uphold higher standards of fitness and time commitment. With decent time management skills, it's easy to balance frisbee with schoolwork. At tournaments we always have a group of girls studying in hotel rooms, but it's also definitely possible to plan ahead and finish your work in advance.

Does Ultimate cost money?The majority of costs are covered by the school through the Student Budget Committee (SBC), and we focus on fundraising so that everyone can afford to play.

Why are we called the "Warmothers?""Warmothers" is an anagram of Swarthmore! Our men's team is called the Earthworms (also an anagram).

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